2018 Donruss Football Cards

Among the mainstream NFL sets, few can match the popularity and affordability of 2018 Donruss Football. Filled with inserts and headlined by the Rated Rookie subset, it could be argued that this is Panini's flagship release.

Like 2017, those buying Hobby boxes can expect an average of one autograph and one memorabilia card.

2018 Donruss Football Base

At 400 cards, the 2018 Donruss Football checklist cuts quite deep into the NFL. The first 300 cards are for current and former players, with an additional 50 rookies and 50 Rated Rookie cards. Collectors should find one rookie and one Rated Rookie in each pack.

As far as the base parallels, there are Press Proof die-cut cards in Silver (#/75), Gold (#/25) and Black (1/1).

2018 Donruss Football Inserts

Combining to average a staggering 40 per box, the 2018 Donruss Football inserts cover a lot of ground. Ground Force uses images from outer space to highlight top running backs. There is also a 20-card set for the Philadelphia Eagles' Super Bowl LII win in The Champ is Here. Reaching back, the 1988 Tribute set honors the '88 Donruss design for the standouts of today. Moving one decade ahead, a similar offering is featured in 1998 Tribute.

But there's even more to look forward to in the insert department, including new sets such as Matthew Berry's Fantasy Life, MVP, Snow Days, and Walter Payton Man of the Year. The case-hit Downtown! insert showcases drawings related to the city where each star plays.

Covering celebrities who enjoy the NFL, Fans of the Game includes snowboarder Chloe Kim, as well as actors Chris Evans and James Caan.

2018 Donruss Football Autographs / Memorabilia

Averaging one of each per Hobby box, 2018 Donruss Football offers several options for autographs and memorabilia. This includes Rookie Phenom Jersey Autographs (#/99 or less) and Rookie Threads. Both first-year sets have Prime (#/25) and Laundry Tag (1/1) parallels.

There is also a 2018 Donruss Football factory set scheduled for September that includes all 400 base cards and one exclusive Rookie Threads relic in a Green parallel.

Trey Treutel | E-Mail Author
Trey Treutel is an Ole Miss grad and a lifelong sports fanatic. He is a huge fan of the NBA and NFL, as well as soccer, college basketball and college football. As a kid, he collected football and basketball cards. In more recent years, he started collecting basketball cards again on a whim and has since expanded to other sports and entertainment options. Find Trey on Twitter at @datreute or Google+.

Had a hobby box on pre-order from a local card store & picked the box up today. While I’m not usually impressed with the standard Donruss Cards the 2018 Donruss Football Cards are a step up from last years release.

Very nice looking cards & let me just say that Panini doesn’t cheat buyers at all in what they’re going to pull from a hobby box of these cards. The hobby box I got matched what Trey had provided & more. I got the 1 Autograph and 1 Memorabilia card, 24 Rookies and 24 Rated Rookies, 40 Inserts, 8 Parallels but I actually received 10 Parallels & 42 Inserts. I also pulled 25 Rated Rookies instead of 24. It was a double of another player from the box but still 25. My best hit was one of the 2 guaranteed auto & MEM cards per box. I pulled a MEM Rookie Threads card of Saquon Barkley.

I also pulled a 1988 Holo(/100) Tribute card of Jalen Ramsey as well. Overall, very pleased with the hobby box pulls that I received. Donruss has made a substantial improvement with this year’s release & the amount of rookies, inserts, & parallels per hobby box is some of the best I’ve seen in any product. Way to go Panini on these cards!

While I can’t disagree with much of Tony’s review – I think the cards look great and you get a very good variety of inserts, parallels, and RCs – I did feel a bit cheated on my box. When it advertises 1 relic and 1 auto you kinda expect to pull that. I was a bit disappointed when I got a Panini Points card that counted as my auto.

I really don’t want to sift through Panini’s garage sale of unclaimed auto’s and relic cards from years past – I wanted an autograph from 2018 Donruss football.
I know I likely would’ve pulled some 5th round lineman auto that isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on, but still – having the points cards count as hits sucks. Those would be nice extra hits.

My rating is slightly soured by my box somehow managing to have 50+ rookies (including inserts) but not including any of the top 2 QBs picked, top RB picked, top 2 WRs picked top 3 TEs picked nor Rosen. That’s right I managed somehow to not get a single Mayfield, Darnold, Rosen, Barkley, Moore or Ridley.

These are the best Donruss Cards Panini has made since bringing back the Brand for any sport. They remind me a little of 1997 Topps football cards but that is a great thing. Great line of sight photo’s. The blue parallels are hard to see though.

Good for what it is – wasn’t going to purchase anything from this set, but grabbed two fat packs of a Walmart display, and got a Nelson Agholor Signature Marks auto, a Mayfield Rated Rookie, and 1 Nick Chubb Rated Rookie plus a Press Proof of the same card. Also got a nice OBJ insert

The sealed factory sets have been released as I saw a bunch of them at Target this past weekend. This year they have both the $49.99 option that comes with an exclusive parallel rookie threads relic card or the $39.99 option that is just the standard base 400 card set.

I love this product! I can not wait for Optics. I have really just picked up the retail stuff because my LCS sold out his on eBay? I love the inserts, The Elites are amazing looking as are the other “High End” looking stuff. Panini shows